Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #7)

About a mile or so out of town the cabby stopped to ask directions at a tavern.

“It’s just around the next bend,” he said with relief showing on his face. We passed a row of stately trees—elms, I believe, although it was hard to tell from bare wintry branches—and then came to a fine brick gateway. The wrought-iron gates were closed. Through them we could see a semicircular driveway in front of an impressive gray stone house, rising three stories high with a turret in one corner. The cabby stopped his horse on the street outside.

“Here it is. Silverton Mansion,” he said. “You want to go in there?”

“Of course. That’s why we came,” Daniel said shortly.

“They expecting you?”

“No, but we’re friends of the family,” Daniel answered.

“I hope so. I hear they don’t take kindly to curiosity seekers, not after what happened. You did hear what happened, didn’t you? How the young fellow robbed them of all their silver and jewelry and shot the butler who had been with them for twenty years or more?”

“Yes, we heard,” I said.

Daniel started to climb down and then offered me a hand.

“You want me to wait?” the cabby asked.

I could tell that Daniel was getting quite annoyed with him. “We certainly don’t want to walk back into town,” he snapped.

“I don’t expect we’ll be more than half an hour,” I said. “Why don’t you go back and get yourself a hot drink at the tavern, then meet us outside here.”

“All right, ma’am,” he said, touching his cap to me. “I’ll do just that.”

We left him turning the horse in a driveway across the street and I stepped through the gate as Daniel held it open for me.

“There’s no lack of money here, is there?” I muttered as I took in the size of the edifice and the land surrounding it. “What do you know about the Silvertons? How did they make their money?”

“Armaments,” Daniel said. “Supplied both sides in the Civil War and the U.S. Army ever since.”

We hadn’t reached the house when the front door opened and a young man came out, pointing a shotgun at us.

“If you’re more damned reporters, you’d better make yourselves scarce before I shoot,” he shouted.

“Are you Harry Silverton?” Daniel called back to him. “Would you please lower that thing? We’ve been sent by John Jacob Halsted’s family.”

“You don’t think any connection to that rat would be welcome at our house, do you?” Harry said, but he did lower the gun.

“We are just trying to unearth the truth,” I said, stepping in front of Daniel in the belief that I’d appear less threatening. “This is Captain Sullivan of the New York police and I am Miss Murphy. Mr. Halsted’s family is naturally worried sick about what might have happened to him. There has been no sign of him since his motor car was found almost a week ago.”

“Isn’t it obvious what happened to him? He’s made off with the loot. Probably on a ship to South America by now.”

“Might we come in for a few minutes and hear your side of this story?” I asked. “All we have heard so far is bits and pieces and most of that is rumor and hearsay.”

“I suppose so.” Harry Silverton ushered us into a wide marble hallway, decorated with Roman statues and potted palms. “You’d better come into the morning room. Mama is in the drawing room and I don’t want to make her more upset than she already is.”

He opened a door to his left and we found ourselves in a corner room that was part of that turret. It was octagonal with windows looking out over the garden and was decorated with wicker furniture and Chinese wallpaper. In the summer, with the sun streaming in, I suspected it would be delightful, but not today. There was no fire in the grate and the room was cold. Silverton indicated a wicker armchair for me to be seated.

“We’ll only take a few minutes of your time,” Daniel said, refusing the offer to sit himself. “How well did you know Mr. Halsted?”

“I considered we were good pals,” Harry Silverton said in a clenched voice. “I met him in my final year at Yale. He joined our polo club. Damned fine horse man. I brought him home to meals. We stayed in touch after I graduated and went to work in the family firm. We went out riding together and to the occasional horse race.”

He paused, scowling out of the window at the snowy scene beyond.